Hello My Name is Bond, well I can only comment on Sutton Grammar. My son joined this academic year and is over the moon with the school. I have found all the boys to be charming, well behaved and caring. They are all very proud of their school. The boys are not overburdened with homework as the school day is long enough (and I presume the boys work hard enough during the day to not require lots of h/w). There are lots of opportunities to do extra curricular activities and it has a fabulous off-site sports field. There seems to be a mature mutual respect between teachers and pupils. It seems you are in a fortunate position to choose between the two amazing schools. Clearly SGS is much smaller than Wilsons making it easier for your DS to make his mark within this very caring community.

I couldn't agree more with SGSMUMof2. My DS joined this school year as well and he loves it there. At the same time, it is the one that is closer/easy access to us when it comes to transportation. Homework wise as mentioned by my son's form tutor, the hw's are spreadout as much as possible 2-3 per week so as not to overburden them - it was among the recommendations that were implemented by the school after a review made I think a year earlier.

SGSMumof2 wrote:

Hello My Name is Bond, well I can only comment on Sutton Grammar. My son joined this academic year and is over the moon with the school. I have found all the boys to be charming, well behaved and caring. They are all very proud of their school. The boys are not overburdened with homework as the school day is long enough (and I presume the boys work hard enough during the day to not require lots of h/w). There are lots of opportunities to do extra curricular activities and it has a fabulous off-site sports field. There seems to be a mature mutual respect between teachers and pupils. It seems you are in a fortunate position to choose between the two amazing schools. Clearly SGS is much smaller than Wilsons making it easier for your DS to make his mark within this very caring community.

Thanks very much for SGS responses - very much appreciated. Would love to also hear from some Wilson's parents out there as well - is anyone prepared to give some comments ? More SGS feedback would be great as well. Finding it hard to understand why threads discussing merits of schools seem so short, whereas preparation for the Tiffin schools runs into several pages (not a criticism as our DD is at TGS, but an interesting observation !)

Knowing what all the schools are actually like from those who have experience of them seems the most important information of all. Hope to hear from Wilson's parents out there .....

I hardly ever come on here but couldn't help myself commenting on SGS. It really is a wonderful place, not too large to be impersonal but plenty of opportunities to excel. I think the most telling thing is that of all the grammar schools mentioned in the Surrey forum it is only the "Admissions Lady" from SGS who ever bothers to clarify or explain the questions posted here. Surely that says a lot in itself.

My name is Bond. i think the Tiffin thread gets long because it is the only school within the reach of many Surrey parents. If you're in Sutton you have the luxury of choice of three excellent schools so the pressure and hence the hysteria gets diluted.

I agree with Menagerie to a certain extent that Tiffin is the more accessible school for many Surrey parents, but I have long thought that there does seem to be some mysticism about the Tiffin name that seems to turn parents' heads. I get the impression from this website that many parents would be happy for their child to travel for miles and miles to get to one of the Tiffin schools but this isn't as obviously the case for the Sutton schools.

I do find this slightly odd as, particularly in relation to the boys' schools there is very little to call between them all, and if you are looking purely at results (which I don't think you should by the way ), then Wilsons has probably come off best in the last few years. You just don't seem to get the same hysteria about getting your child into Wilsons (or any of the other Sutton schools) as you do about Tiffin.

I for one would love to know what it is that causes that and I am an ex -Tiffin girl myself and still don't understand

I agree with Menagerie to a certain extent that Tiffin is the more accessible school for many Surrey parents, but I have long thought that there does seem to be some mysticism about the Tiffin name that seems to turn parents' heads. I get the impression from this website that many parents would be happy for their child to travel for miles and miles to get to one of the Tiffin schools but this isn't as obviously the case for the Sutton schools.

I do find this slightly odd as, particularly in relation to the boys' schools there is very little to call between them all, and if you are looking purely at results (which I don't think you should by the way ), then Wilsons has probably come off best in the last few years. You just don't seem to get the same hysteria about getting your child into Wilsons (or any of the other Sutton schools) as you do about Tiffin.

I for one would love to know what it is that causes that and I am an ex -Tiffin girl myself and still don't understand

I think it is because, as the Tiffins don't apply a catchment area, every can apply with an equal chance based purely on the exam. For the Sutton Surrey schools as I understand I there is a catchment area factor. This means that it is hard for kingston parents to get into grammar schools outside kingston. Hence there is more competition to get into Kingston schools than elsewhere. As a result the bar is set pretty high academically, and the academic results have been rising in recent years - a vicious or virtuous circle depending on your viewpoint.

I am not an expert though (Kingston parent with son going to Tiffin and daughter up next for who knows where)

I'm sure all parents will be very positive about all three of these schools.

My son is in Year 7 at Wilsons and has settled in brilliantly, much better than we dared to hope. The kids are lovely, the parents friendly and the teachers are superb - committed, interested and enthusiastic. My son tends to describe most things as 'allright' or 'OK I s'pose', and NEVER used to volunteer to do any after school activities, but even he admits that Wilsons is 'great', and that his teachers are 'suprisingly really interesting'. He comes home very upbeat every day, and has thrown himself into various after school activities. They work hard at school and are regularly assessed, but homework is not too bad. They were given no homework over Christmas and Easter, recognising that they are still young and need their downtime.

I have no doubt that Sutton and Wallington are equally as rated by the parents and pupils. Follow your instinct and listen to your child if you are mulling over which order of preference to chose!

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